The present invention relates to a program change management method and more particularly to automatic change of a client program in the Web service.
Recently, a client/server program utilizes the distributed object technique to advance the effective utilization of resources and making the resources into parts. As the distributed object technique using the Internet to exceed the local network, there is the Web service described in “Java Web Services” by David A. Cbappell etc. (published by O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., March 2002) (Terms of Java and related to Java are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc). In this literature, three techniques including SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol), WSDL (Web Service Description Language) and UDDI (Universal Description Discovery and Integration) are described as fundamental techniques of the Web service.
According to the literature, the SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) is the definition of envelope structure used in exchange of structured documents and the structured document described in accordance with this definition are named SOAP message. In the client/server program using the Web service, the SOAP message is used to make communication. Such technique is disclosed in pages 25 to 53 of the literature.
The WSDL (Web Service Description Language) is a format of the structured document for defining the interface of the Web service. In the client/server program using the Web service, the WSDL file described in accordance with the WSDL format is used as an interface to make communication using the SOAP message. Such technique is disclosed in pages 72 to 95 of the literature.
The UDDI (Universal Description Discovery and Integration) presents the global registry and the standard specification for the Web service and is disclosed as the registry utilizable in common in the Internet. Accordingly, in the client/server program using the Web service, the Web service of the server program is registered in the UDDI registry and the client program retrieves the Web service registered in the UDDI registry to thereby make it possible to utilize the Web service of the server program. Such technique is disclosed in pages 98 to 139 of the literature.
In the Web service, it is assumed that interface definition information of the server program on the reception side of an access request is changed. The client program must be also changed in response to the change of the interface definition information. However, the change of the interface definition information is not notified to the client clearly. The client program prepared in accordance with the interface definition information that is not revised is not fit to the new interface to thereby cause an error. The maintenance person of the client program analyzes the cause of error generated by the client program to obtain the revised interface definition information and corrects the client program in accordance with the revised interface definition information.
In production of the client program in accordance with the conventional system, the client program is produced from the interface definition information and a prototype that is a kind of source code. Accordingly, even if it is understood that the error generated in the client program being executed is caused by change of the interface definition information, the maintenance person once stops the client program and obtains the revised interface definition information. Then, the maintenance person prepares the prototype of the client program in accordance with the revised interface definition information again and performs the changing operation of the client program while judging the correspondence relation between the change portion of the interface definition information and the corrected portion of the program, so that labor and time are required. During the changing operation of the client program, the user cannot use the client program.